British communism and the politics of race PDF
Preview British communism and the politics of race
BritishCommunismandthePoliticsofRace Historical Materialism Book Series EditorialBoard SébastienBudgen(Paris) DavidBroder(Rome) SteveEdwards(London) JuanGrigera(London) MarcelvanderLinden(Amsterdam) PeterThomas(London) volume143 Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hm British Communism and the Politics of Race By EvanSmith leiden | boston TheLibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailableonlineathttp://catalog.loc.gov LCrecordavailableathttp://lccn.loc.gov/2017034663 TypefacefortheLatin,Greek,andCyrillicscripts:“Brill”.Seeanddownload:brill.com/brill-typeface. issn1570-1522 isbn978-90-04-29713-5(hardback) isbn978-90-04-35236-0(e-book) Copyright2018byKoninklijkeBrillnv,Leiden,TheNetherlands. KoninklijkeBrillnvincorporatestheimprintsBrill,BrillHes&DeGraaf,BrillNijhoff,BrillRodopiand HoteiPublishing. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,translated,storedinaretrievalsystem, ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise, withoutpriorwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher. AuthorizationtophotocopyitemsforinternalorpersonaluseisgrantedbyKoninklijkeBrillnvprovided thattheappropriatefeesarepaiddirectlytoTheCopyrightClearanceCenter,222RosewoodDrive, Suite910,Danvers,ma01923,usa.Feesaresubjecttochange. Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaperandproducedinasustainablemanner. Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 Themes 8 ShiftingAwayfromtheCentralityofClass 12 ThinkingIntersectionallyaboutthecpgbandthePoliticsof ‘Race’ 14 SituatingtheParty’sAnti-racismwithintheWiderScholarship 17 ANoteonMethodology 20 BookStructure 23 1 TheEndofEmpireandtheWindrushMoment,1945–60 28 TheCommunistParty’sAnti-colonialTraditions 29 ThecpgbandtheEraofDecolonisation 32 LeftNationalismandthePostwarcpgb 36 TheResponseoftheCommunistPartytoCommonwealth Migration 38 TheCampaignAgainstPolishResettlement 39 TheLegacyofthe‘BattleofCableStreet’andthecpgb’sPostwar Anti-fascism 48 Anti-fascistActionagainsttheFascistRevivaloftheUnion Movement,1945–51 52 TheImpactofCommonwealthMigrantsupontheParty’sAnti-racist Outlook 58 TheNationalityBranches 65 Conclusion 67 2 Anti-racismandBuildingthe‘MassParty’,1960–9 70 TheCommunistParty,LabourandImmigrationControls 71 ThePrincipleofImmigrationControls 78 TheCampaignforLegislationagainstRacialDiscrimination 80 TheRaceRelationsActsUnderLabour,1965–8 84 Thecpgb’sConceptof‘Race’inthePost-ColonialEra 86 TheMovementforColonialFreedomandModerateAnti-racism 90 TheBeginningsofthe‘BritishUpturn’andtheRadicalismof ‘1968’ 93 TheTradeUnionsandRace 99 vi contents TheRiseofNewSocialMovementsandBlackRadicalism 101 TheLinkwithInternationalIssues 104 CapitulatingtoRacism:LabourandtheCommonwealthImmigrants Act1968 106 Integrationand‘GoodRaceRelations’:The1968RaceRelations Act 109 PowellismandtheRiseoftheNationalFront 112 Conclusion 118 3 TheCrisisEmerges,1970–5 120 The1971ImmigrationActandOppositiontotheConservative Government 122 TheCommunistPartyandtheReactionoftheTradeUnionstothe ImmigrationAct 126 FacingtheLimitsofIndustrialMilitancy 128 TheUgandanAsian‘Controversy’andtheRiseoftheNationalFront undertheConservatives 130 The‘NoPlatform’Strategy 134 RedLionSquareandtheDeathofKevinGately 138 TheTradeUnionResponsetoFascismandRacisminthe1970s 143 AsianWorkersandtheTradeUnionsintheEarly1970s:Mansfield HosieryMillsandImperialTypewriters 147 Conclusion 156 4 TheGreatMovingRightShow,1976–9 158 TheBuildingoftheBroadDemocraticAlliance 162 TheGrunwickStrike 166 IntersectionalityandtheBritishLabourMovement 169 PolicingtheLabourMovement 175 Thenf’sShifttotheStreetsandtheRiseoftheAsianYouth Movements 178 TheRiseoftheswpandtheRevivalofMilitantAnti-fascism 182 The‘BattleofLewisham’ 184 ‘TheNationalFrontisaNaziFront’:TheAnti-NaziLeague, 1977–9 189 RockAgainstRacism 193 TheanlandtheWiderBritishLeft 199 SouthallandtheDeathofBlairPeach 203 contents vii ‘FeelingRatherSwamped’:ThatcherandtheExploitationofPopular Racism 206 Conclusion 210 5 Babylon’sBurning:Intothe1980s 214 FurtherDefeatsforthecpgb 218 ThePoliceandtheBlackCommunities 220 FromSouthalltoBrixton:TheViolentReactiontothePoliceUnder Thatcher 225 ‘CrisisintheInnerCities’:TheCommunistParty’sReaction 229 The1981RiotsasSocialProtest 232 LordScarman’sReportandtheDenialofInstitutionalRacism 234 TheBroadDemocraticAllianceandMunicipalAnti-racism 237 The‘Limits’ofTradeUnionisminthe1980s 242 ThePushforBlackSections/CaucuseswithintheLabour Movement 248 TheEndoftheParty 250 Conclusion 252 Conclusion 255 References 263 Index 277 Acknowledgements ThisbookstartedoffasaPhDprojectoveradecadeagoandhastransformed immenselyinthepostdoctoralperioduntilnow–anditisfinallyreadytobe read.FirstlyIwouldliketothankDavidLockwoodasformerdoctoralsuper- visorforhisguidance,hisassistanceandhissteadfastMenshevism.Myother colleaguesatFlindersUniversity,duringbothmyPhDtenureandmytimeasa Vice-Chancellor’sPostdoctoralResearchFellow,havealsobeenatremendous help–MattFitzpatrick,AndrekosVarnava,PeterMonteath,CatherineKevin andMarinellaMarmo. Thisbookcouldnothavebeenwrittenwithoutthewonderfulsourcethatis theCommunistPartyof GreatBritainarchiveattheLabourHistoryArchives and Study Centre in Manchester and I would very much like to thank Dar- renTreadwellforhishelpovertheyearswiththis.Alongsidethis,mythanks go to the very helpful staff at the numerous other archives visited for this project:theWorkingClassMovementLibraryinSalford,theModernRecords CentreattheUniversityofWarwick,theSchoolofOrientalandAfricanStudies archive, the Birmingham City Archives, the Black Cultural Archives in Brix- ton, the Marx Memorial Library in London, the Glasgow Caledonian Uni- versityarchivesandtheNationalArchivesatKew.Iwouldalsoliketothank ChristianHøgsbjergforhisassistanceinobtainingdocumentsfromtheBilly Strachan papers at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Special Collec- tions. Manypeopleprovidedinformation,adviceandmaterialsovertheyearsthat were incorporated into the book in some way, so I would like to thank the followingfortheirinputandassistance:DavidRenton,IanBirchall,Matthew Worley,SatnamVirdee,KevinMorgan,RichardCross,IanGoodyer,Lawrence Parker, Nigel Copsey, John Callaghan, Sean Creighton, Anandi Ramamurthy, Graham Stevenson, Martin Jacques, Joan Bellamy, Christabel Gurney, Mike Squires,PaulFlewers,RobMarsden,PhillipDeeryandMarkPerryman. IwouldalsoliketothankSebastianBudgenandDannyHaywardfromthe HistoricalMaterialismseriesatBrill/Haymarketfortheirinitialinterestinmy projectandtheirsupportthroughtopublication. Thanks should also go to Keith Flett and John Callow who allowed me to presentpapersonmyresearchinLondonattheInstituteofHistoricalResearch totheLondonSocialistHistorians’GroupandattheMarxMemorialLibrary respectively. Myspecialthanksgoestothosewhoreadsectionsofthebookovertheyears, includingLauraButterworth,NickAtanasoff,DavidBrooks,AlieseMillington
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